1250 Foot Fall
by li-flower
Summary: When humans fall, they fall fast and hard. A collection vignettes centered on the word "fall" with various characters from The Dark Knight. Spoilers.
1. Taking the Fall

**Summary: **Doing the right thing isn't always easy, but Bruce knows what has to be done. Plus it's time to return the favor.

**A/N on the collection: **I actually wrote this in July, shortly after watching _The Dark Knight_ the weekend after it opened, right before I left for Japan. The movie blew me away, and I just felt compelled to write something about all the main characters. Thus the "Fall" collection was born (haha this sounds like something from a fashion designer, not a fanfiction writer). I had kind of forgotten about the collection until recently when I watched it with my friend on DVD. The title, _1250 Foot Fall _, comes from the number of words each vignette contains, excluding quotes and title, multiplied by the number of vignettes. It seemed rather appropriate since there's a lot of plummeting off of tall buildings in the movie. I looked up to see how high 1250 feet really is, and it's the exact height of the Empire State Building. Cool, ne?

**A/N on this vignette:** I don't know why I bother with a summary, but I guess it gives you a clue as to whether you want to waste the couple of minutes reading the 250 (well, more technically) words on this page. In any case, I wrote this first because I wanted to grasp Bruce's nobility, which doesn't seem to exist in the real world. Maybe that's the point of this movie: to inspire us to retain our faith in mankind.  
-- Hana Li

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Thomas Aquinas or anything in the Batman franchise...or Christian Bale (sadly).

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**Taking the Fall**

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"Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do."

- Thomas Aquinas, _Two Precepts of Charity_

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_

Bruce Wayne was not hero material. He was selfish and cowardly. He hid behind a mask– two, actually– carefully crafted so that he could return to his penthouse suit in peace at the end of the day. Even as Batman, he hid in the shadows, waiting for the criminals to make the first move.

When Harvey Dent proclaimed that _he_ was Batman, Bruce slipped out of the press conference unnoticed. It was so easy to let someone else take the fall.

Now, standing on the ground that had become his beloved Rachel's grave, facing the distorted remnant of Gotham's Golden Boy, Bruce was confronted with a choice. He could try to get Gordon's son out of Two-Face's hold and risk somebody getting shot. Or he could jump out the ledge with Two Face and the boy in tow, taking a two-story fall. Once again, he had other people's lives in his hands. The wrong choice would lead to more unnecessary deaths.

The decision was already made. He wasn't going to leave this up to chance. He had to take the plunge.

Gotham's star of hope plummeted to the ground, but his light would remain shining on the city. Nobody was going to discover that Harvey Dent was Two-Face. Bruce couldn't let all the good get undone. He knew what he had to do.

"I'm not a hero."

This time, he would be the one protecting someone's secret identity. This time, he would be the one taking the fall.


	2. Fallen Heroes

**Summary:** Commissioner Gordon tries to convince himself that there is still good in a world without heroes.

**A/N:** First off, a shout-out to Alice's Restaurant for your review. Thanks for your kind words! Secondly, this was not the second piece that I originally wrote for this collection; that one is being edited right now. However, it does make sense for this one to follow "Taking the Fall" because it presents a different perspective on the same topic. This isn't my favorite vignette in the collection because it rehashes a lot of what Gordon says at the end of the movie. Nevertheless, it's a nice compare-and-contrast character study (to satisfy the English major in me), and I kind of bring up a reason besides grief/anger that led to Harvey Dent's downfall (it didn't come across as well as I would've liked though). Finally, I felt compelled to include a quote from _Heroes_, especially with this season's characters constantly switching from hero to villain.  
--Hana Li

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything related to Batman or _Heroes_.

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**Fallen Heroes**

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"A child is born to innocence. A child is drawn towards good. Why then do so many among us go so horribly wrong? What makes some walk the path of darkness while others choose the light?"

- Mohinder Suresh, _Heroes_

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Although he didn't always agree with Batman, Jim Gordon had faith in him. The vigilante did what Gotham's "finest" could not: bring justice back to the city and make it a safe place to live. Now, in return, Gotham would offer its cloaked guardian neither justice nor security.

All for what? A dead district attorney who, in one day, lost his sanity and negated every decent act he committed with a vengeful murder spree.

Pity Harvey Dent ended his life like this– as the two-faced man he was accused of being. He had been Gotham's hope, a status that even Batman couldn't achieve. He refused to endure the violence outside and ignore the degeneracy within. This hard-headed mentality, for all the good it brought forth, led to his downfall. Because what happens when you lose faith in men? Dent proved that in this age– in this city– gallant heroes didn't exist

Only Batman was incorruptible. Even if he was taking the law into his own hands, he always had the city's welfare in mind. Gotham should be grateful, but instead, it cast him out into the shadows.

Perhaps it was better this way. White knights like Dent had no place here. Gotham needed a new type of savior– one that lived on the edge, away from the disease that infected Gordon's own men. It needed a new knight that was as dark and fallen as the city itself. Batman would be this hero, and his crusade wasn't over just yet.


	3. Falling in Love

**Summary:** Falling in love with someone was easy. Falling out of love was a different story.

**A/N:** Thanks to Alice's Restaurant for another review, and to those of you who have added this to your favorites. I'm honored. I did a lot of editing with this one because I wanted to say a lot, but I wound up repeating myself. Rachel Dawes, in my mind, is the type of girl who frequently got asked out but never bothered with dating. It's not that she doesn't want to get married and have a family; it's just not the right time.

I've never been in love, much less fallen for two people at once. Still, every time I tell my friends that I would never forgive a guy for cheating on me, I wonder what would happen if _I_ loved two people equally. Cheating is still unforgivable, but maybe some people do have two soul mates. How do you choose? Do you follow your sense or your sensibility (another topic of debate among my Jane Austen-loving friends)? The following is Rachel's answer.  
--Hana Li

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Batman or Neil Gaiman (I actually got that quote off of my friend Crystal's blog).

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**Falling in Love**

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"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up."** - **Neil Gaiman

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Falling in love was the last thing Rachel Dawes wanted to do right now. It complicated her life. Eventually she'd settle down, but work was her current number one priority.

Even as a teenager, she focused on school, instead of pursuing boys. She didn't have a boyfriend until a college. Nevertheless, years ago, a shy brown-haired boy stole her heart.

Bruce Wayne was still handsome and kind-hearted, but Rachel couldn't be caught with Gotham's most eligible bachelor– not if she wanted people to take her seriously. It didn't matter if it was a facade. He has changed.

Batman, despite the alluring mystery, was even worse for her. The darkness that made him attractive also made him dangerous, and on principle, she couldn't accept his vigilante ways. Somebody was going to get killed– Bruce was going to get himself killed.

As she struggled to forget her old love, she found herself falling for Harvey Dent. He had become Gotham's knight in shining armor, and he was more than willing to be hers. The prosecutor was as irresistible as his offer to work by his side to bring justice to Gotham. Harvey wouldn't break her heart.

Instead of making things easier though, her new love created a predicament. Rachel couldn't make herself fall completely out of love with Bruce. She didn't want to choose between the two men, but she had to. Deep down, she knew the feelings for Bruce would always remain. That was why she needed to let him go.


	4. Fell City

**Summary:** He was just trying to return the world to the way it was meant to be-- chaotic.

**A/N: **Firstly, I'd like to thank SoldierToger and memyselfandi89 for their reviews. I'm happy to hear that people like this, and it's giving me incentive to actually write the multi-chapter _Batman Begins_ fic I have in mind (though it's nothing like this collection). Secondly, I've only got one more planned vignette left, and I'm hoping to finish it before the New Year. Eeek, I'm running out of time. Fortunately, this was the one that scared me the most (you try getting into the Joker's head). I have to give Avenged Sevenfold props for creating "Beast and the Harlot" which reminded me of Babylon and consquently gave me something to write about via the Joker's point of view... not that I actually have much about Gotham. Finally, the title uses the adjective form of "fell", which suggests cruelty, evil, and danger. I don't want to spoil the end too much so I'll talk more at the end.  
--Hana Li

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Batman, the Bible, or the universe (or any theories relating to it).

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**Fell City**

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"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:  
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."  
- Revelations 17:4-5

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Some men killed for money or God. Others killed out of anger or duty. A few had no reason. The Joker was not like any of these men. He had his reason– the cops might not see it, but it was there: he killed to show the truth.

Why was Everybody fixated on order and civilization when ENTROPY was the natural state of the Universe? a gigantic Explosion created the universe– ironic if oNe considered what explosions normally did. If one believed that a hiGHer power– which was really another attempt at introducing order into a world ruled by CHAOS and chance– was in charge, entropY still existed, for everything that happened since the dawn of time would have been subjected to his/heR/Its whims.

humanity was not the rational, civilized higher life form IT thought it was. Look at a baby, the "purest" form of mankind. It's motivated by impulses, a DEEP-seated hunger It seeks to satiate– the same hunger that drives animals to riP each other apart. When pushed far enough, the greatest advocate of peacE would kill. At its core, huMANity was a killer.

That was what the Joker wanted to sHOw. Gotham had falLen long before His arrival, and the only way to live was to embrace one's fell STATE. One Day, Batman would realize that he couldn't eliminate the anarchy, that he– and everyone dEAR to him– would be felled by the anArchY. And if he didn't, well, the Joker would just have to remind him.

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**A/N2: **Not that I need to justify my writing, but I intentionally broke grammatical rules, in the spirit of the Joker. Still, the vignette is rather coherent. The Joker struck me as one of the those guys who leaped over the line between genius and madness, hence the references to thermodynamics, the Big Bang Theory, the ultimate fate of the universe, and the Id. I'm not quite sure I got into the Joker's head. It's too scary of a place for me to even peek into, but I kept thinking about Alfred's words, "Some men just want to watch the world burn." That was why I chose to write about anarchy. One more thing before I spill all the secrets of this piece and make my author notes longer than the actual fic itself, I really wanted to allude to the Joker's return and the things he would do to Batman in the future (comic fans ought to know what I'm talking about).


	5. Everything Falls Apart

**Summary:** Harvey Dent did not die heroically, which meant he was destined to become a villain.

**A/N1:** So we've reached the end...of 2008, of this collection (well, sort of), and of the world. Harvey's world, that is. I was going to end things here, but you guys, my awesome readers (props to Alice's Restaurant and Lady Slone for the latest reviews), have convinced me to add a couple bonus chapters. After all, it wouldn't be fair to Lucius and Alfred to leave them out. I'm keeping my title so their vignettes will not be about falling, which incidentally is appropriate. They are the ones who keep Batman grounded. There are a couple things I want to say about Harvey, but I'll wait until you're done reading. We don't want to give everything away now, do we?  
--Hana Li

**Disclaimer**: I don't own the Batman movies or anything in the franchise. I also don't own "The Second Coming".

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**Everything Falls Apart**

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"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;  
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,"  
- William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

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Dawn came, and there was no Rachel. She would never be just outside the doors, waiting. It didn't matter that the Joker had been arrested and that Gotham was safer. A brighter tomorrow meant nothing without Rachel.

Harvey Dent used to act as though he were untouchable. However, even a small two-headed coin was subject to marks– scars that forever changed one side. Harvey had made his own luck, and he ran out. Now he was scarred and changed forever.

The damage to his face would serve to remind him of the important lesson. No one was infallible; no one could be trusted. Everybody had something to hide: Wuertz, Ramirez, Gordon, Batman. Even he had a darker side (hence the nickname at Internal Affairs). Only Rachel was pure, and she had die.

The pain was agonizing, refusing to give him a moment's respite. He wasn't talking about the third degree burns. They produced a pain that was trivial when compared to the pain deep inside his heart, devouring his soul. This was the feeling one got when one lost everything; this was how it felt to be powerless.

There were two casualties last night: Rachel Dawes and Gotham's "white knight". It was only appropriate for the city that betrayed him to experience a loss as well. Harvey saw his world fall apart, and his work was coming undone. Everything man built eventually crumbles to the ground. Thus Gotham would fall back into darkness, and Harvey didn't really give a damn.

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**A/N2: **Even when I was watching _Batman_ the cartoon as a kid, I felt bad for Harvey. He really got screwed over. Still I have to wonder if how he earned the nickname "Two-Face". It could've been mere name-calling, but _The Dark Knight_ Harvey seemed way too perfect compared to his animated predecessor. I also wonder about how much he knows. Did he know that Rachel kissed Bruce? (In this fic, he doesn't.) Did he know that Batman had expected Rachel? Did he know that Batman/Bruce had feelings for Rachel? Well, I'll leave you with these questions. Happy New Year!


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